The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series regular season concluded this past Saturday night with the Coke Zero Sugar 400 at Daytona International Speedway, setting the stage for the upcoming 16-driver, 10-race "Chase" postseason, the first since NASCAR ditched the "win and in" knockout style setup that had been used from 2014 to 2025.
Aside from a few noteworthy date changes, such as Phoenix Raceway's postseason race moving from November to October after the track had hosted the championship decider each year from 2020 to 2025, there were two major changes made to this year's playoff schedule involving new tracks.
But with two new tracks set to host playoff races this year, two others were effectively removed from the postseason calendar.
2 tracks removed from NASCAR Cup Series playoff schedule
The first is New Hampshire Motor Speedway, which recently hosted the penultimate race of the regular season in late August. New Hampshire returned to the playoffs for the first time since 2017 in 2025, but its return was short-lived. Having said that, it is set to return to the postseason schedule once again in 2027.
While not a direct date replacement, New Hampshire has been replaced by Homestead-Miami Speedway, which is set to host the season finale for the first time since 2019. Homestead-Miami did host a playoff race each year from 2022 to 2024, but it was moved back to the regular season calendar for one year in 2025.
The other track removed from the calendar is merely a layout removal, as the same venue is actually set to host the event.
After eight consecutive years of hosting what was, at the time, the first road course playoff race, the Charlotte Motor Speedway Roval is no longer on the Cup Series schedule in any capacity.
For the first time since 2017, the 10-race playoff schedule is set to feature only oval races, with Charlotte's postseason event once again set to be contested on the oval to give the track two races for the first time since 2020, when a race was added in May to make up for COVID-19 restriction-related cancelations elsewhere. Charlotte also hosts the annual Coca-Cola 600, the longest race on the schedule, on Memorial Day Weekend.
As far as date changes for existing playoff venues go, Kansas Speedway moved up one week, Las Vegas Motor Speedway moved up two weeks, and Phoenix moved up three weeks. Aside from those three tracks, Charlotte's layout swap, Homestead's addition, and New Hampshire's removal, nothing else has changed, venue-wise or date-wise, on this year's postseason calendar.
The 2026 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs are scheduled to begin this Sunday, September 6 with the Cook Out Southern 500, which is set to be shown live on USA Network from Darlington Raceway beginning at 5:00 p.m. ET. Don't miss any of the action from the track "Too Tough To Tame"!
Add us as a preferred source on Google